IT: Chapter One director Andy Muschietti finally pulled back the curtain on the infamous Pennywise the Clown origin scene that was removed from the 2017 film. Anytime a movie is made, there are inevitably scenes that don’t make the final cut.
Over the past eight years, audiences have heard about a deleted scene that explains the origins of IT. At the time, it was thought to be too gruesome to include in the film.
To promote the upcoming IT spinoff series Welcome to Derry, filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti appeared on The Kingcast, a podcast hosted by Eric Vespe and Anthony Breznican in which they discuss everything Stephen King. At one point during the interview, the brother-sister duo was asked about the deleted origin scene, and Andy revealed what actually happened.
During test screenings for IT, certain audience members wanted to know more about the iconic villain’s origins, so the filmmakers went back for some additional shooting. That was when the producers and writers created a scene that showed the origin of the fog that IT manifests to manipulate innocent people.
At first, Andy and his co-workers didn’t really want to create an origin scene because part of what makes Pennywise/IT intriguing and special is the “mystery.”
There was a point in ...-production of IT where we do test screenings and stuff. Of course, you get notes from the audience and cards and comments and everything, and everything is taken into consideration. And there was a portion of the audience that wanted to know more about origins. And we were always like, look, this is what makes it special, the mystery. But anyway, we basically indulged in that and [were] given the opportunity of doing additional shooting.
The “inciting incident,” as Andy explained, was a scene set in the 1700s that showed a woman running away with her baby. She reaches her cabin, but IT uses its manipulative powers on her.
IT has a hold on her other child and bargains with the woman. The villain will save the woman, her husband, and their baby if she lets IT eat the other child. All she has to do is “look into the fire.”
The woman is experiencing extreme distress at having to make a “Sophie’s Choice,” as Andy described it. In the end, she “reluctantly” looks into the fire as the audience hears “the sounds of IT eating the other child.”
We created a scene where it’s not the origin of IT that is revealed but the origin of the fog, the origin of the look, in a way, the forgetfulness of the adults in this world. And we created an inciting incident, which is basically a woman in the 1700s running away with her baby. She’s running away, runs inside her cabin, and what happens next is a bit of an illustration of the manipulative powers of IT and the origin of this pact. So we created a pact; it’s a mythological event where we sort of explain why adults don’t look—we put it in very literal words, as an adult or audience you can understand the fog is something that happens in real life and has a lot of different explanations.
But we wanted to make it literal, and in this case, it was basically IT making a bargain with a mom who wants to save her baby. There’s another child in that cabin, and basically, IT, in its primal form, has a hold on her other child and says, I’m going to eat your kid, you just have to look away, look into the fire. There’s a fireplace there. If you let me eat your child, I’m going to forgive you and your kid and your husband and so and so. So in a high distress, she has to make a decision, it’s like a Sophie’s Choice, and she reluctantly slowly turns to the fireplace and looks at the flames as we hear the sounds of IT eating the other child. It was very bleak.
Unfortunately, test audiences said they were “very confused,” telling the filmmakers, “Why are you telling me this?” So while certain viewers in the initial test screenings wanted an origin story, the version that the filmmakers gave them turned out not to be what they wanted, after all. Still, Andy called the scene “very powerful,” despite how “bleak” it was.
We put it in the movie. People were very confused. It’s a very powerful scene. They were like, “Why are you telling me this?”
Andy went on to direct IT: Chapter Two, the sequel that was released in 2019. Six years later, the Muschiettis are back in the Stephen King universe, where they’ve developed the upcoming prequel series Welcome to Derry, which premieres on October 26 on HBO.
The TV show could be a way to incorporate the deleted origin story from IT, but the Muschiettis don’t seem to be on the same page regarding whether the scene will ever see the light of day. So for now, viewers will just have to keep watching Welcome to Derry and see if a future season explores the infamous backstory.
Bill Skarsgård is back as Pennywise on Welcome to Derry, with a cast that also includes Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Blake Cameron James, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, Clara Stack, Amanda Christine, and Mikkal Karim-Fidler.
IT: Welcome to Derry premieres Sunday, October 26 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
- Release Date
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October 26, 2025
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Andy Muschietti